[Xmca-l] Re: identity expressed or formed by action?

[Laure Kloetzer]

Well, collective action may not always be at the same place in subjective
activity...
>From my works on online communities, I can see (unsurprisingly) how
engaging into collective action contributes to building selfhood. But also,
of course, echoes the representations that each participant has on his own
identity, interests, and life projects.
In Stephen's case, the situation of the patients is a struggle for life,
isn't it (at least for social and personal meaningful life, not only
biological survival) ? A life or death challenge. Any resource in that case
would be used to re-build (but still, not express) selfhood. Social
affiliations are of course an extremely important resource here. The
question is: in which ways does expression per se contributes to
reconstruction?
Best
LK


2017-02-15 11:57 GMT+01:00 Stephen Walsh <stephenwals@gmail.com>:

> I may have to get a coffee and put my thinking cap on a little tighter   :)
> Is the impulse (or drive) that was evidenced in the minimal group
> experiments to favour our ingroup the same impulse that drives us to give
> and accept social support?  I think it may be.
>
> On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 10:49 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>
> > That sounds good, Stephen, but I don't see any "drive to express
> identity"
> > in there. I do think there is a drive to form and preserve social bonds,
> > but this is not the *expression* of affiliative identity; perhaps the
> > source of "affiliative identity," and the objective basis for an imposed
> > identity (as opposed to a self-identity), but not something created by a
> > desire or drive to express a pre-existing identity.
> >
> > Yes?
> >
> > Andy
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > Andy Blunden
> > http://home.mira.net/~andy
> > http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
> > On 15/02/2017 9:36 PM, Stephen Walsh wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Andy,
> >> I think that the answer is both.  I think we need to think of identities
> >> as heterogeneous rather than homogeneous. Looking at identity
> >> (dis)continuity following brain injury is instructive. Research we have
> >> conducted with brain injury survivors taking part in post acute
> community
> >> neurorehabilitiation shows that identities deriving from the groups we
> >> belong to (affiliative identities; e.g. familiy) generate social support
> >> which facilitates the formation of 'self as doer' identities (e.g.
> painter,
> >> walker etc etc).
> >> Best Regards,
> >> Stephen
> >>
> >> On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 7:30 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
> <mailto:
> >> ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
> >>
> >>     I would be interested in any helpful comments (other
> >>     than suggestions for more books to read) from my xmca
> >>     psychologist friends on this problem.
> >>
> >>     In discussion with a friend, who is very au fait with
> >>     contemporary social philosophy, but knows nothing of
> >>     CHAT, suggested to me a number of ideas intended to be
> >>     explanatory (rather than descriptive) of current
> >>     social and political trends. He talks about the rise
> >>     of "expressive authenticity" since the 1970s and
> >>     "collective action as a means to express selfhood." In
> >>     response, I questioned whether there is any such thing
> >>     as a drive to *express* one's identity, and that
> >>     rather, collective action (and there is fundamentally
> >>     no other kind of action) in pursuit of needs of all
> >>     kinds (spiritual, social and material) is *formative*
> >>     of identity.
> >>
> >>     A classic case for analysis is the well-known
> >>     observation that nowadays people purchase (clothes,
> >>     cars, food, ...) as a means of expressing their
> >>     identity. I question this, because it presumes that
> >>     there is the innate drive to express one's identity,
> >>     which I see no evidence for. I think people adopt
> >>     dress styles in much the same way that people carry
> >>     flags - to promote a movement they think positive and
> >>     to gain social acceptance in it. Identity-formation is
> >>     a *result* not a cause of this.
> >>
> >>     So, am I wrong? Is identity formation a result or a
> >>     cause of activity?
> >>
> >>     Andy
> >>
> >>
> >>     --     ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>     Andy Blunden
> >>     http://home.mira.net/~andy <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy>
> >>     http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-
> decision-making
> >>     <http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-
> >> decision-making>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>